Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 4, 1993 TAG: 9308040144
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
"I am the only gentleman in this room who hopes that he will work himself out of a job," he told about 20 business people at a meeting in the Fine Arts Center of the New River Valley Tuesday morning.
The group is working toward forming a merchants' association, with the help of the Main Street program.
Later in the meeting after Cox had made his comments and left, the participants decided to move ahead on the association and have it cover the entire town, including the malls. "Maybe if the other merchants see what we're doing here and they see the unity, they will join in," said Jeanette Stephens of Main Street Galleries.
Before leaving the meeting, Cox told the local merchants he would quit the job he has had for a year "whether it's completed or not, as of January or February of '94. I am giving my resignation as of today."
But Pulaski's future is ultimately up to its people, he said. "This is your town and whatever you want in this town, you get."
Cox has helped fill nearly all of the previously vacant stores on a block of Main Street and parts of branching streets in central Pulaski, mainly with antiques, crafts, music and restaurants. The new enterprises represent about $1.5 million in investments, he said.
"I think that's pretty damn good for an old man of 70," he said. "Also, we have created 55 jobs as of this morning."
There have been frustrations, he said, such as poor attendance at two concerts aimed at raising money for Main Street.
"Both of them have been catastrophes," he said, but they did generate publicity for Pulaski "so I do not think that it was all a bust."
Cox mentioned a couple of other frustrations. "This is not a fussin' session, but I am going to bring certain things to people's attention."
He said he has been unable to persuade downtown business people to park elsewhere and leave space for their customers or to get together on common or expanded business hours.
"So I have given up on that particular situation. I have said that customers and the marketplace will take care of that."
He pointed out that his family is also in business in the downtown. His wife runs Vivian's Collectibles, one of the new enterprises.
Cox became emotional at one point while talking about Pulaski, where he worked in personnel, industrial relations and production at Jefferson Mills from 1957 to 1964.
He had retired from Alliance Electric Co. in Aiken, S.C., when the Main Street board hired him in May 1992, as part-time director. It had been without a director for a year.
"I have an affinity with Pulaski," he said. "I think it's the prettiest town in Southwest Virginia. I also think it has a lot of nice people in it."
After Cox's leave taking, Alma Holston, Town Council's liaison with Main Street, said, "When you see Roscoe Cox shed a tear, believe me, that's coming from his heart."
Cox and Holston have shared quarters in the Pulaski office of state Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle, where Holston is Trumbo's representative. Cox will soon move across the street to a new office because their joint space has become too cramped for both programs.
"This is not something that just came up today. . . . When he started, his goal was to fill up the street," Holston said. Although Cox and his wife have a residence in Hilton Head, S.C., Holston said she did not think he would ever completely leave Pulaski, where the couple lives with their son.
As he recruited business for Main Street, Cox said, he saw the downtown as a new-born child that someday must walk by itself.
His job, he told the merchants, was to bring in businesses and help them become established. "But once I do that, then I feel that you have an obligation to work diligently to see that your business is a success," he said. "Success is contagious."
Audrey Jackson, who worked until recently as Main Street promotions coordinator, said she had been disappointed by the "token few merchants" who would show up at promotions meetings. She said it is better for the merchants to get together on their own than to have some individual trying to push promotions.
"You people are the nucleus of doing something great," Jackson said. She said the planned merchants' association is the next step.
by CNB